“This flu thing’s out of control,” Grady said, pointing his fork at the TV. “There’s talk of them doing quarantines.”“Quarantines?”“Yeah, like going into towns where infection rates are high and locking the place down. That sort of thing.”Ciaran laughed. “You watch too much sci-fi, mate…”

“There are places that we are welcomed," said Triolet, "and places where we are regarded as a noxious weed, or as a disease, something immediately to be quarantined and eliminated. But where does contagion end and art begin?”

“Unhappiness can be like a virus spreading from one person, to the next person, to the next one and so on. When someone is mean or rude to you, do not let their unhappiness infect your own life. If you are the unhappy one, please quarantine yourself so you do not infect others!”

“When a court officer suggested quarantine for Nerissa, she grabbed the man's pen and jammed it into the back of his hand, screaming that he was a Crimson Guard witch come to remove her memories and replace them with bird-song.They decided to skip quarantine after that.”

“A talking computor with an attitude problem? Haven't I seen that in a dozen b-grade sci-fi flicks?" "Where do you think I got the idea?”

“The vast distances that separate the stars are providential. Beings and worlds are quarantined from one another. The quarantine is lifted only for those with sufficient self-knowledge and judgment to have safely traveled from star to star.”